Open AccessA 12-year experience in endobronchial intervention using rigid bronchoscopy - account of a tertiary referral centre
Author(s) -
Sam BartlettPestell,
James R. May,
Ashutosh Sharma,
Sunshine Alonzo,
Natalie Barnes,
Brendan Madden
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
monaldi archives for chest disease. pulmonary series/monaldi archives for chest disease/monaldi archives for chest disease. cardiac series
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2465-101X
pISSN - 1122-0643
DOI - 10.4081/monaldi.2022.2161
Subject(s) - tertiary referral centre , tertiary care , bronchoscopy , medicine , rigid bronchoscopy , tertiary referral hospital , tertiary level , intervention (counseling) , general surgery , referral , flexible bronchoscopy , radiology , surgery , family medicine , psychology , mathematics education , retrospective cohort study , nursing
We describe our experience of rigid bronchoscopy and endobronchial intervention at a single tertiary centre over a 12-year period. All rigid bronchoscopy procedures between July 2008 and July 2020 (inclusive) were reviewed. All procedures were performed in cardiothoracic theatres by a designated team under general anaesthesia. 2135 rigid bronchoscopies were performed on 1301 patients aged between 18 and 93 years. Complications occurred in 24 (1.12%) procedures. There was one fatality (0.05%). Haemorrhage >100mls occurred in seven (0.33%) all of which were successfully managed endobronchially. Ten procedures (0.5%) were complicated by pneumothorax and an intercostal drain was required for eight. Five patients required intensive care admission post operatively, all of whom were subsequently discharged from hospital. One patient had stent migration. To the best of our knowledge, this is amongst the largest single centre collection of data available for endobronchial intervention using rigid bronchoscopy. We show that rigid bronchoscopy is a safe and effective procedure when performed in a high-volume specialist centre with designated lists involving a specialist multidisciplinary team.